3 Body Problem Ending Explained: What Happened To ‘The Oxford Five’, Who Is Behind the Deaths Of The Scientists and Why
3 Body Problem is available on Netflix from March 21, 2024. This is the first season of the new TV series, consisting of 8 episodes, created by the authors of Game of Thrones: David Benioff, DB Weiss, and Alexander Woo. The highly anticipated sci-fi series is based on the first book in Liu Cixin’s Memory of Earth’s Past novel trilogy. These eight episodes are characterized by two temporal planes, namely the Cultural Revolution of China in the 1960s and the present day. But let’s see together what happens, all the answers, how it ends, and what is known about season 2. It is a complex, fascinating story inspired by one of the most difficult and fascinating dilemmas in physics, ready to deal with profound issues from the concept of faith to that relating to alien life forms, prompting many reflections and engaging with a story full of twists and turns.
Created by the same names behind the masterpiece Game of Thrones, there is a lot of anticipation towards 3 Body Problem. But how does the first season of the series end and what is the explanation for the ending of 3 Body Problem? Let’s find out together. But beware of spoilers! Meanwhile, a little recap of the plot. Netflix science fiction series that begins with the decision of a young woman who has lost her faith in humanity. A single action reverberates across space and time to the present day, where a group of brilliant scientists and an unconventional detective must face the greatest threat in human history. Below, I tell you what happened in the last episode of the program created by Alexander Woo (The Terror: Infamy, True Blood), David Benioff, and DB Weiss (Game of Thrones) and the resolved questions.
3 Body Problem Netflix: The Story Plot
3 Body Problem takes place in two main storylines: the first is set in China in the 1960s, amid the Chinese cultural revolution, and the second in the present day, between Oxford and London. In 1966 we meet Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng) a brilliant astrophysicist who, after witnessing the brutal murder of her father by members of her party, is forced into forced labor in a remote location in rural China. If her intelligence and education had made her an “enemy” of a party that demanded approval of certain ideas, things suddenly changed for her there. The work camp is built near a huge laboratory, where a few chosen individuals carry out mysterious experiments. It won’t take long before the woman is made part of the project, and Ye Wenjie will discover that the purpose of the research is to communicate with the other intelligent entities that populate the universe. She will have to discover how to spread the earthly message effectively, and someone, over time, will end up answering her…
Meanwhile, in present-day England, an investigator, Clarence (Benedict Wong) is trying to discover why, both at home and in various locations around the world, an increasing number of scientists are violently taking their own lives. Some of them talked about a strange countdown, others about a hyper-realistic video game they had been invited to play. As if that wasn’t enough, science seems to have suddenly gone mad: in the most important laboratories on the planet, experiments give unpredictable results, as if everything studied and established no longer makes sense. Five brilliant thirty-year-olds, who met while studying physics at Oxford University, meet again trying to shed light on what is happening: among them are Jin (Jess Hong), one of the best theoretical physicists in his field; Saul (Jovan Adepo), a research assistant who saw his beloved mentor commit suicide; Will (Alex Sharp), who did not continue his academic career to become a teacher, Auggie (Eiza González), who decided to exploit his preparation to break into the field of nanotechnology and finally Jack (John Bradley), who after university he founded a company to produce snacks and drinks and became rich.
The five friends find themselves at the center of an increasingly absurd and dramatic situation when, on the one hand, Auggie begins to have vision problems: the woman sees a strange countdown everywhere, a countdown that is approaching too quickly to the end. zero. On the other hand, both Jin and Jack are invited to participate in a mysterious video game they find an ultra-modern viewer that transports them into an extremely realistic virtual reality. The aim of the game? Save the planet from cyclical and inevitable destruction. There are many questions, but the answer, the further the vision proceeds, seems to be only one: something dangerous is coming from the deepest space, something that perhaps was called by a Chinese woman, so many decades before…
3 Body Problem Ending Explained: What Happened To ‘The Oxford Five’, Who Is Behind The Deaths Of The Scientists and Why?
The last episode of 3 Body Problem sees the protagonists of the story grappling with humanity’s great mission: that of trying to defeat the aliens when they arrive in 400 years. The episode opens with Saul Durand, the Oxford physics research assistant who is one of the most prolific minds on the scientific scene. Saul is chosen by the UN to be one of the protagonists of the Impenetrable project where only three people in the world, among the most brilliant, are chosen for the most difficult mission of all: that of planning a way of salvation from the alien invasion that will occur in 400 years and to do it in thought, without talking about it to anyone because aliens can see and hear everyone but they cannot read minds. Saul initially refuses but after being shot almost to death by his enemies (the aliens’ loyal men) he decides to stay. Meanwhile, the project conceived by Jin Cheng begins to launch a capsule into space with the brain of his friend Will Downing, the physics teacher with pancreatic cancer who decides to sacrifice himself for science and donates his brain to be hibernated and then launched into space exceeding the speed of light and thus reaching the aliens.
The probe with Will’s brain inside is launched, the first detonations that increase its speed until it exceeds the speed of light occur successfully but then a rope of the sail that tows the capsule breaks and it changes course, deviating its trajectory. At this point, we see Thomas Wade who, while he is in flight, is reached by the manifestation of an alien, the woman who also appeared in the video games, who tells him that he is an excellent leader, that he is part of their plan and that he will serve them until his death, which he shows him in preview. At this point, Jin Cheng and Saul are desperate for the death of their friend Will but the agent who works with Wade who has now become Saul’s security officer, makes them understand that despite being less advanced than the aliens, they can beat them and stay on earth just like insects. Thus, the first chapter of 3 Body Problem closes with an ode to insects.
In the present day, 3 Body Problem finds Detective Da Shi (Benedict Wong) investigating the deaths of several scientists. Vera Ye’s suicide leads him to follow his friends ‘The Oxford Five: Auggie Salazar (Eiza González), Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo), Will Downing (Alex Sharp), Jin Cheng (Jess Hong), and Jack Rooney (John Bradley). Shortly before learning of Vera’s death, Auggie begins to see a countdown and witnesses strange things. To prevent him from reaching zero he quits his job in nanotechnology. Meanwhile, Jin and Jack Rooney become obsessed with an otherworldly virtual reality game, the same one Vera supposedly played before committing suicide. Is there a relationship between the game and the death of some scientists? Jin and Jack think not and continue playing.
When they reach the third level, they cannot solve 3 Body Problem, but they understand the true mission of the game, so they are invited to a meeting where they meet Tatiana (Marlo Kelly), who reveals to them that this technology belongs to her. to some aliens they know as San-Ti. She also explains that they will arrive on Earth and that people like her are ready to receive them. Jack refuses to believe that story and leaves, while Jin wants to know more. Tatiana invites her to a meeting with the leaders and then sneaks into Rooney’s apartment to assassinate him. The death of her friend worries Jin, who becomes Da Shi’s spy, and her boss Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham). Although they manage to infiltrate the summit that reveals Ye Wenjie as the founder and arrest several followers, there is nothing they can do to prevent the San-Ti from arriving in 400 years. As the threat level increases, a secret mission, Project Wallfacer, is launched into dangerous territory to obtain information from the enemy. As they discover new things about their enemies, it becomes more difficult to find a way to confront them. However, Wade brings together the brightest minds on the planet to prepare a defense plan.
What Happened to Project Wallfacer and Project Staircase?
General Hou Bolin (Clem Cheung), a military historian, Professor Leyla Ariç (Salem Murphy), and Saúl Durand were chosen for the Wallfacer Project. But the latter rejects “the most difficult mission in the history of humanity”. Each of those selected must devise plans to defeat the enemies, but they cannot share their progress, since their mind is the only safe place. The San-Ti can see and hear everything on Earth thanks to the Sophon, but they cannot access the minds of human beings.
After being shot and watching his companion die, Saul understands what his new job entails and what it represents for the future of humanity. “We deliberately kept Saul in the shadows for the first seven episodes. “He’s an important character, an important character, but he plays a secondary role in many other stories, but [this] makes it even more unlikely that he will be the one who becomes the center of attention for almost all of Episode 8” he explained. Woo to Tudum.
On the other hand, Project Staircase, which consists of sending a probe towards the San-Ti Fleet to collect information about them, fails. Will’s brain, who volunteered after discovering he had stage four cancer, successfully navigates the first detonations, but a slight off-course sends what’s left of Will into outer space. Wade whispers something to a heartbroken Jin. What did she say? Is it related to Will’s brain and his whereabouts?
Why Does Wade Opt for Cryofreezing?
Wade’s next plan in 3 Body Problem is to freeze himself and wake up every so often to see humanity’s progress in its fight against the San-Ti. However, before that happens, they contact Wade through Sophon. “You are part of our plan. Everything we want you to see, you will see until the day you die”. Additionally, they show him a countdown and an image of his own corpse with his eyes gouged out.
At the end of the Netflix series, Auggie uses his nanofiber technology to filter drinking water in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. While Tatiana remains alive and becomes an important asset for the San-Ti, Da Shi takes Jin Cheng and Saul Durand to a nearby swamp to give them a hopeful message: “People hate insects and have been trying to get rid of them for a long time. Look around you, they are not going anywhere”.
At the end of the Netflix series, Auggie uses his nanofiber technology to filter drinking water in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. While Tatiana remains alive and becomes an important asset for the San-Ti, Da Shi takes Jin Cheng and Saul Durand to a nearby swamp to give them a hopeful message: “People hate insects and have been trying to get rid of them for a long time” Look around you, they are not going anywhere.
Who Is the San-Ti?
San-Ti is the name given to the alien race traveling to Earth, with whom Ye Wenjie first came into contact from the Chinese military base in the 1960s. We are later told that their planet, four light years away from ours, is doomed due to unstable weather conditions caused by the three suns that orbit it (the three-body problem that gives the series and the novel before it its title). Because of their remoteness, they are destined to arrive on Earth in 400 years – so around 2424. When Ye first makes contact, it takes four years for the sound to travel to the aliens and just as many to get back, but they have the technology to communicate faster, so instant communication is later possible. Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans (Jonathan Pryce) are the most loyal followers of the San-Ti and have created an association composed of people who prepare for their arrival. Their idea is that the San-Ti will improve life on Earth, solving all the problems that afflict our planet: it was Ye Wenjie’s disillusionment with mankind that made her send the message to the aliens, asking them to come and invade the planet.
What are Sophons?
The San-Ti have predicted that humans will develop faster than them, not being plagued by the constant destructive cycles affecting their planet. When the aliens arrive on Earth, therefore, humans will have already overtaken them and for this reason they could counter the invasion, destroying them or sending them back to Trisolaris. The San-Ti’s plan is therefore to use the “sophons” to try to stop humanity’s further scientific and technological progress. Sophons are extremely small supercomputers, and the San-Ti has sent two of them to Earth. Sophones can see and hear everything that happens on Earth, which is why nothing can be kept secret from aliens. They can corrupt experiments, like Vera Ye’s project, and they can also control reality and what people see and hear (they are the ones who implant the countdown vision in the minds of scientists).
What Happens to Ye Wenjie?
After learning of humanity’s ability to lie, the San-Ti sever ties with Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans, who were preparing for their arrival on a ship off international waters along with many other devotees. Y and Wenjie realize that they have abandoned her and that they no longer consider her important to their plans when they allow her to be captured and interrogated by Wade’s (Liam Cunningham) organization, committed to preventing the invasion by any means possible. After being released, the woman travels to China, to the site of the military base where she worked 60 years earlier. Here she is found by Tatiana, her former partner and now sent by aliens to kill her, but Ye had already decided to commit suicide by throwing herself into the void, so her fate is already sealed. If initially we were made to understand that the aliens would have wanted a peaceful coexistence once they arrived on earth, after having discovered the “flaws and weaknesses” of the human race, i.e. its ability to lie (which they cannot do), they decide to focus on a violent invasion, to exterminate us.
What is Will’s Fate?
In episode 2 Will is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a disease for which he is only given six months to live. In episode 5, Wade proposes Operation Staircase, which involves sending a reconnaissance probe to intercept the San-Ti during their journey to Earth and thus discover as much information as possible about them and their civilization. However, since the aliens are still 400 years away from our planet, no spaceship will be able to reach them in time. Jin then thinks about the possibility of sending a probe, pushed on the right trajectory by a series of nuclear explosions (according to the scientist’s calculations, 1,000 explosions will be needed to reach the exact speed). Wade would like to send a person into space (hibernated with a particular technology that scholars have tested on monkeys), but to reach the right speed, the spaceship/probe can only carry up to 2 kg of weight.
The next idea, then, is to remove a person’s brain and send it into space, assuming that the San-Ti will recover it and have the technology to “rebuild” anyone who volunteers. Jin suggests Will, since he is already dying, and he accepts. Will then undergoes surgery to remove the brain from his body, which is then frozen and placed in the spaceship. Wade, Jin, and other scientists travel to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to witness the launch, and everything initially seems to be going as it should. However, one of the strings holding the capsule comes loose, thus deviating from its trajectory. This means that Will’s brain is left floating in space indefinitely.
Who Are the Wallfacers?
It is in episode 8 that the series introduces the Wallfacer project. Wallfacers are people chosen by the United Nations to fight the San-Ti, people capable of formulating plans entirely in their own minds, so that aliens (via siphons) cannot discover them. The Wallfacers cannot reveal their plans to anyone, not even in written form: the only thing the San-Ti cannot do is read minds, so this is the only way to keep the defense strategies secret or attack elaborated by mankind against them. Saul is chosen to be a Wallfacer, along with a Chinese general and a Kurdish war hero. The trio will have all possible resources at their disposal and will never be questioned about their actions. No one can tell Saul why he was selected, not even the Secretary General of the United Nations: the only thing we know is that the San-Ti consider him an important person, because – as we will see – they try to kill him on several occasions.
What Happens in the Last Episode of the Series?
The season finale opens with a car accident, in which the woman with whom Saul spent the night dies when hit by a crazy car while they are waiting for a taxi. Later, Saul is interrogated by Clarence, who suspects that the cars were tampered with by the Sant-Ti and their target was Saul. Clarence then takes Saul, by private jet, to the United Nations in New York, where Project Wallfacer was launched. After discovering that he has been chosen, Saul vehemently refuses the assignment, but as soon as he exits the building he is shot by a sniper and is saved only because Clarence had forced him to wear bulletproof clothing.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, we discover that someone entered Tatiana’s home and was given one of the San-Ti VR helmets as a gift. Her package was left with a note that we discovered was the aliens’ motto: “If one of us survives, we all survive.” In Florida, however, the Staircase program, as we have seen, fails, and the capsule containing Will’s brain remains wandering directionlessly in space. Jin and the rest of the team are obviously devastated. Auggie, who we haven’t seen for a while, is in Mexico, trying to forget the massacre that occurred in the Panama Canal (in episode 5): the woman has decided to use her inventions to do good, and is creating filters with its nanofibers to save a village from a dysentery epidemic.
During the flight back to England from Cape Canaveral, Wade is contacted by the San-Ti: the aliens tell him that they are sorry that the Staircase program didn’t work, because they would have liked to meet Will, but that they still want to meet Wade. The voice of the San-Ti then tells him that there will be a place for him when they arrive, as they see that he is a strong and capable leader. In one of the most disturbing moments of the series, they tell him that they will be with him forever and that he will see what they want him to see until the day he dies. Wade then has a vision of the same countdown seen by Auggie, then a vision of himself without eyes.
The episode ends with Jin and Saul drinking at their motel, feeling deeply depressed over both the failure of the Staircase program and the terrifying responsibilities that being a Wallfacer entails. Clarence then insists that they come with him for a drive and takes them to a nearby swamp to observe the swarms of insects: the San-Ti may think that humans are insects, he tells them, but if the insects do one thing, is to survive. Humankind will therefore find a way to survive the invasion, thanks to its intelligence and science it will find a way to survive, we just need to continue to hope and do research.
